This invention relates generally to power delivery to electronic circuits and particularly to an improved power delivery system for supplying power from a power source to a processor.
In a typical computer system, a large printed circuit known as a xe2x80x9cmotherboardxe2x80x9d contains a number of basic components. The motherboard is supplied with voltage from a power supply. The motherboard includes connectors for daughter boards that can be plugged in to provide additional capabilities. Such boards, for example, may provide an interface to disk drives and compact disk read only memories, and may provide modem interfaces for local area networks and the like.
Processors operate at lower voltages than some other components on the motherboard. However, because of their high speed, processors consume large amounts of power despite the fact that they use lower voltages. Since the processor is operating at a low voltage with high power, the current required by the processor is large. A localized DC-to-DC converter (known as a voltage regulator module (VRM) or power pod) reduces the main supply voltage for supplying the processor, for example. Typically for Intel 32 bit processors, this DC-to-DC converter plugs into a connector on the motherboard. The lower voltage is then conducted through printed circuit traces on the motherboard to the processor socket. For higher current Intel 64 bit processors, the DC-to-DC converter connects directly to the processor package through an edge connector because of the high loss associated with conveying power through two connectors and the motherboard as in Intel 32-bit systems. The power connector may also provide signal connections related to power supply issues.
Conventionally, the processor is plugged into the motherboard in a direction that is transverse to the plane of the motherboard. If the plane of the motherboard defines the X and Y directions, the processor is plugged into the motherboard in the Z-axis direction. In other words, the processor is moved from a position above the motherboard downwardly to plug into the motherboard. Conventionally, the DC-to-DC converter is plugged onto the processor package edge in a direction that is generally parallel to the surface of the motherboard (transverse to the Z-axis direction).
This configuration results in a number of difficulties. With the processor already attached to the motherboard, the action of plugging the converter into the processor carrier along the surface of the motherboard (e.g., the X-axis direction) is prone to interference from upwardly directed components already on the motherboard. Moreover, there is little room to manipulate the converter connections along the motherboard. The interconnection of the converter and the processor carrier is awkward, increasing the demands on assembly workers and requiring more elaborate interconnection devices. A complex rigid mount mechanism is used to align the processor package and the DC-to-DC converter in both the Z and X axes. This takes up a large amount of motherboard real estate.
Thus, there is a need for an improved way of delivering power to a processor package edge.